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Observational Learning – Module 20
Intro Psychology
Oct 26-28, 2009
Classes #25-26
Albert Bandura
(1925-present)
 Pioneering researcher in
observational learning
 Was born in the small town
of Mundare in northern
Alberta, Canada
 He received his bachelors
degree in Psychology from
the University of British
Columbia in 1949
 He went on to the University
of Iowa, where he received
his Ph.D. in 1952
 In 1953, he started teaching
at Stanford University and
continues to work at
Stanford to this day
Social Learning Theory
 Also called observational learning, this is
learning that occurs by observing and
imitating others (the person being observed is
referred to as the model)
 Major components involved in
observational learning
 Attention
 Retention
 Reproduction
 Motivation
 Self-efficacy
Major Components
 Attention
 If you are going to learn anything, you have to be paying
attention. Likewise, anything that puts a damper on attention is going to
decrease learning If, for example, you are sleepy, groggy, drugged, sick,
nervous, etc you will learn less. Likewise, if you are being distracted by
competing stimuli
 Retention
 Second, you must be able to retain -- remember -- what you have paid
attention to
 Reproduction
 You have to have the ability to reproduce the behavior in the first place.
 For example: Some people can watch Olympic ice skaters all day long,
yet not be able to reproduce their jumps, because they can’t ice skate at
all! On the other hand, if they could skate, their performance would in
fact improve if they watch skaters who are better than they are
Major Components
 Motivation
 Bandura feels that even with all this you’re still not going
to do anything unless you are motivated to imitate, i.e.
until you have some reason for doing it
 Bandura mentions a number of motives:
 Past reinforcement
 Past rewards
 Promised reinforcements
 Incentives that we can imagine
 Vicarious reinforcement
 Seeing and recalling the model being reinforced
 Self-Efficacy
 Having a sense that you can do it well
Bandura, Ross, and Ross (1963)
The “Bobo" Doll Experiment
 Note : Bandura did a large number of
variations on the “Bobo doll”
experiment…we’ll look at a few
 Phase 1
 Pre-schoolers were divided into two
groups and put into two separate rooms
and allowed to play with "attractive" toys
while “Bobo” an unattractive inflatable,
adult-sized, egg-shaped balloon
creature (the kind that bounces back
after it's been knocked down) sat by
itself at the far end of the rooms
Bandura, Ross, and Ross (1963)
The “Bobo" Doll Experiment
 Phase 2
 Group 1: While playing with the
attractive toys the children
witnessed adults enter the room
and start beating the daylights
out of the clown
 Group2: While playing with the
attractive toys the children
witnessed adults enter the room
and play nicely with Bobo
 Phase 3
 The attractive toys were taken
away from each group
 Results: What happened
next?
Poor Bobo…
Bandura (1965)
The “Bobo" Doll Experiment
 In the 1965, version kids watched films of adults beating on
Bobo – but each had different endings…
 Film 1:
 Adult praised and rewarded with candy and soda by another
adult who was heard saying, “You’re a strong champion”
 Film 2:
 Adult is scolded by another adult, “You’re very bad” or “Hey
there, you big bully, you quit picking on that clown”
Who cares about what a
kid does to a "Bobo" doll?
 Well, that’s what the critics said…”those
things are made to punched aren’t they?”
 Responding to criticism that Bobo dolls were
supposed to be hit, Bandura did a film of a
young woman beating up a live clown
 When the children went into the other room, what
should they find there but -- the live clown!
 They proceeded to punch him, kick him, hit him with
little hammers, and so on…
Don’t let your husband watch
those violent movies…
 Loye, Gorney, & Steele (1977)
 Participants:
 183 married males; 20-70 years old
 Procedures:
 Watch one of five TV “diets” for 20 hours over a one week
period
 Unknown to participants, their wives were secretly observing
and recording their behavior
 “Helpful” vs. “hurtful” behaviors when not viewing TV
 Results:
 Viewers of violent programming increased in aggressive mood
and “hurtful behavior”
 Viewers of prosocial programs decreased in aggressive mood
and demonstrated an increased “emotional arousal” from the TV
viewing
Limitations
 There is one clear limitation to this study…
Is Television To Blame?
 Hundreds of studies say yes! Why?
 Social Learning Theory says:
 People become immune to the horrors of violence
 They gradually come to accept violence as a
way to solve problems
 They imitate the violence they observe on
television
 They identify with certain characters
Space Blaster
Doomsday Version 2.5
Social Learning Theory of
Aggression
 Theory that aggressive behavior is
learned through:
 Direct Reward
(example: father buys son an ice cream after he
wins a fight)
 Observing Others Being Rewarded for
Aggressiveness
(example: a television character wins the girl of his
dreams as a result of killing several people)
Glamorizing Violence
 Plagens, et al. (1991)
 Typical American child sees 200,000 acts of
violence on TV by age 18
 Children who watch a lot of violent TV are
more violent towards peers
 Experimental studies, in which violence is
controlled, also find effects of watching
violence
Other studies have found…
 By the end of elementary school, a
typical American child will have seen:
 8,000 murders
 More than 100,000 other acts of violence.
 2003 study found 534 separate episodes
of prime-time violence during a 2 week
period.
 The most violent TV shows are targeted
to children (e.g., cartoons).
Violent Video Games
 Several studies have shown
significant results indicating that
playing violent video games is
associated with a history of
property destruction and hitting
other students…
 Anderson & Dill (2000)
 College students randomly
assigned to play a violent
video game (Wulfenstein)
later had more aggressive
thoughts and feelings than
those who played a
nonviolent game (Tetrix)
Videos
 Dilemma for parents about letting
children watch television and play
video games
 parents find video a good babysitter
 parents believe video can sometimes
be educational tool
 Experts suggest parents turn off
the TV to avoid exposing children
to video violence
Videos
 Most “good guys” are male white heroes
 Women/females portrayed as victims or
adoring friends not as leaders
 Content of video games even worse than
than that of television
 more violent, sexist, racist
Videos
 Content of video games crucial reason
behind great concern of developmental
researchers
- Research shows that violent TV and video
games push children to be more violent than
they normally would be
 Computer games probably worse, as children are
doing the virtual killing
Immediate Effects of Media
Violence
 Aggressive models increase
aggressive behavior among
children and adults
 Models can be live or on film
 Violent imagery in the music
industry associated feelings of
hostility and aggressive
thoughts
 Playing violent video games
can increase aggressive
thoughts and behaviors
Long-Term Effects of Media Violence
 Exposure to TV violence at ages 6-9
positively correlated with aggression as
adults
 No gender difference
 Cross-cultural study found relationship
between early viewing of TV violence and
later aggression
Black & Bevan (1992)
 Movie-goers filled out an aggression
questionnaire as they entered, or left: a
violent movie, or a nonviolent movie…
 DV: aggression
 IV: type of movie
Procedures
 Subjects were randomly picked as they
went to view violent movie or romantic
film
 In both cases, they were asked to fill out
pretest questionnaire on aggression
 After viewing the movie, they were again
asked to fill out another questionnaire on
aggression (posttest)
Results and Implication
 Those watching the violent movie were more
aggressive to begin with
 They became even more aggressive after watching
the violent movie
 Implication:
 Watching Violence Magnifies Violent Inclinations
Can have positive effect…
 Friedrich and Stein (1972):
 The Mister Rogers Study:
 Showed a preschool group Mister Rogers every
weekday for four weeks
 During the viewing period, children from less
educated homes became more cooperative, helpful,
and more likely to state their feelings
 Other studies:
 Children, especially males, who watched educational
television became teens who earned higher grades,
read more
Cookie Monster is on a diet..
Sesame Street is doing its
part…
 All components of observational learning
/operant conditioning are involved
 Kudos to the Cookie Monster and his friends
Maybe a new name?
Conclusion:
Application of Bandura’s Theory
 Prosocial behavior
 Bandura feels it can be used to promote prosocial
behavior – helping behavior
 Violence in schools
 Bandura feels his theory applies to today’s violent
times as well